Defection: CPP resorted to use dirty trick to make a "small situation big, so that people across the country will hear it on the radio and television"

Monday, January 29, 2007
200 SRP Supporters Join Ruling Party, CPP Says

By Lor Chandara and John Maloy
The Cambodia Daily

CPP officials claimed Friday that more than 200 SRP supporters and an SRP commune councilor joined the ruling party during a ceremony in Banteay Meanchey province's Mongkol Borei district. "They have changed their faith and joined our party, perhaps because they think [the SRP] leaders speak more than act," CPP Provincial Deputy Governor Sok Sareth said Friday. Kim Suor Phirith, SRP lawmaker for the province, countered Sunday that the crowd was made up of members of the general public hoping to receive gifts from the CPP, rather than SRP defectors. However, he added that Phnom Touch commune's SRP councilor Keat Soeung has defected because he was left off the party's list of commune election candidates. Koul Panha, director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, said the ceremony was Government spokesman likely part of a CPP campaign to make a "small situation big, so that people across the country will hear it on the radio and television."Khieu Kanharith said he was unaware of the details of the case.